Painteria leptophylla (DC.) Britton & Rose
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Authors
Rupert C. Barneby
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Authority
Barneby, Rupert C. & Grimes, James W. 1996. Silk tree, guanacaste, monkey's earring: a generic system for the synandrous Mimosaceae of the Americas. Part I. Abarema, Albizia, and allies. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 74: 1-292.
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Family
Mimosaceae
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Scientific Name
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Synonyms
Mimosa mauroceana Desf.
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Description
Species Description - Low xeromorphic, stiffly branched microphyllous shrubs 4—15 dm, armed at each node of flexuous long- shoots with a pair of ascending or spreading, either straight or gently recurved lignescent stipules, the young growth, except for often facially glabrous lfts, densely puberulent with procumbent or spreading, whitish hairs to 0.1-0.25 mm, the old stems gray glabrate, the lvs olivaceous subconcolorous, the subglobose capitula of white-stamened fls arising single or 2-3-nate from brachyblasts, either accompanied by or antecedent to fasciculate lvs. Stipules of primary lvs tapering from dilate, often decurrent base to a vulnerant, pallid or glossy-castaneous point, (3-)4-9 mm, those of brachyblasts stiffly subulate, not more than 1.5 mm. Lf-formula of primary lvs iii— vi(-vii)/( 10-) 12-20, the pinnae of lvs on brachyblasts often 2-3 pairs; lf-stks 0.5-4(-5) cm, the petiole 2.5-12(-l 8) mm, at middle 0.5-0.8 mm diam, the narrow ventral sulcus continuous between all but first pair of pinnae, the longer interpinnal segments 2.5-8 mm; a dimpled, shortly stout-stipitate or subsessile nectary between proximal pinna-pair 0.25-0.5 mm diam and about as tall, none on pinna-rachises; pinnae distally accrescent, the rachis of furthest pair 9- 27(-36) mm, the longer interfoliolar segments 0.8-2.2 mm; lft-pulvinules 0.2-0.3 mm diam, not wrinkled; lfts proximally decrescent and also sometimes less so at very end of rachis, the plane blades narrowly oblong, linear-oblong or -lanceolate from shallowly semicordate base, obtuse or obscurely apiculate, those near midrachis 2.4-4.5 x 0.8-1.2 mm, (2.7-)3-4.5 times as long as wide; venation weakly developed superficially, the straight, simple or 1- branched midrib prominulous only dorsally, subcentric or displaced to divide blade to 1:2, in some relatively broad lfts one faint posterior primary nerve ascending to or beyond midblade, the ventral face of blade essentially nerveless. Peduncles (1—)3—13(—18) mm; capitula 16-35-fld, the clavate receptacle 1.5-2.5 mm, sometimes produced at apex into a filiform sterile appendage; bracts linear-oblanceolate or -spatulate 0.8-2.1 mm, persistent into anthesis; fls externally homomorphic but some functionally staminate; perianth 5-merous (rare abnormalities), the calyx minutely puberulent either overall or only on teeth, the reddish or greenish corolla glabrous up to the often minutely silky and always densely fimbriolate lobes; calyx campanulate, contracted at base into a stout pedicel 0.2-0.6 mm long and about as wide, (1.3-)1.5-3.2 x 1.4-1.8 mm, the ovate or deltate teeth 0.2-0.7(-0.9) mm at early anthesis, the membranous sinuses sometimes splitting in age; corolla (3.5-)3.8-5 mm, the ovate recurving lobes 1.2-1.9 x 0.9-1.2 mm; androecium 40-76-merous, 6-10.5 mm, the well-defined stemonozone (0.5-)0.6-l mm, the tube 2-4 mm, the callosities at base 0.25-0.4 mm tall or sometimes (especially in staminate fls) subobsolete; ovary slenderly ellipsoid compressed glabrous, the stipe 1-1.4 mm; style of bisexual fls about as long as androecium, the stigma punctiform. Pods l-2(-4) per capitulum, in profile falcately or subcircinnately broad-linear, attenuate into an erect cusp 2-6 mm, the fertile body 7-11.5 x 1.1-1.9 cm, 8-10-seeded, the stiffly leathery valves at first piano-compressed, becoming turgid and low-convex (on both faces of pod) over each seed, in section 0.3-0.5 mm thick, composed of thin black mesocarp and thin crustaceous endocarp, at first or permanently densely gray-puberulent overall or finally glabrescent and fuscous-castaneous, indistinctly venulose, pallid but not satiny within, the cavity continuous; dehiscence inert, through both sutures, tardy; seeds obliquely descending on scarcely dilated, straight or sinuous (not sigmoid) funicle, compressed but plump, 7.5-11 x 7-9 x 3—4 mm, the smooth hard, moderately lustrous testa fuscous-castaneous, the pleurogram 5-8 x 3-7 mm, incomplete.
Distribution and Ecology - In grassland, matorral, and at the lower edge of the pine-oak belt, on both andesitic and calcareous substrates, sometimes in badlands, 1850-2750 m, scattered over the Mexican Meseta Central from centr. Chihuahua to W San Luis Potosí, the Santiago valley in centr. Jalisco, and the N slope of Cord. Volcánica from Michoacán to Tlaxcala and Puebla; one record from N Oaxaca (distr. Teposcolula). — Map 45. — Fl. III-VI(-VIII).
Local Names and Uses - Huisache, a name applied more commonly to Acacia farnesiana Linn, and relatives.
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Common Names
huisache
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Distribution
Chihuahua Mexico North America| San Luis Potosí Mexico North America| Zacatecas Mexico North America| Durango Mexico North America| Jalisco Mexico North America| Michoacán Mexico North America| Distrito Federal Mexico North America| Tlaxcala Mexico North America| Oaxaca Mexico North America|